Top ten political turkeys of 2010

Memo to novice candidates like Sharron Angle: Know thy Constitution. Don’t tell Hispanics they look Asian. Pay special attention to what you say when you are in front of cameras. Be careful about calling for ‘Second Amendment remedies’ with recorders rolling.

So many turkeys. So little time.

We’ve had a bumper crop of political turkeys in this volatile midterm election year. Of course, the memorable losers cross party lines and ideological stripes.

Here is our list of ten candidates who lost their offices or fought losing campaigns for office in 2010:

Sharron Angle, for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the Nevada Senate race.

Alan Grayson, for turning a tough House re-election race in Florida into a rout by verbal blunders such as calling his Christian conservative foe “Taliban Dan.”

AP photo

Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman, for spending more than $150 million and losing the California governor’s race to a septuagenarian re-tread. In a landslide.

Nancy Pelosi, for denying the political reality of a House Republican wave from the Atlantic to the Rockies until it was too late. Wait, wait, she still hasn’t accepted why Democrats lost.

Martha Coakley, for taking a vacation after her Massachusetts Senate primary victory rather than continuing to campaign against charismatic Republican challenger Scott Brown.

Trey Grayson, for believing that the support of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell would help him coast to victory over Rand Paul in the GOP Senate primary.

Solomon Ortiz, for believing that South Texas voters would re-elect a 14-term Democratic incumbent in an overwhelmingly Hispanic district in a Republican year even if he didn’t run a serious campaign.

Jim Oberstar, for losing touch with his Minnesota constituents after three decades in Washington and losing re-election &#151 and the chairmanship of the powerful House Transportation Committee.

Rick Lazio, for getting trounced in the New York Republican gubernatorial primary by Carl @*!?#*ing Paladino. Andrew Cuomo is laughing all the way to the governor’s mansion.

Bob Bennett, for losing his bid for renomination to a Utah Senate seat in a Republican primary despite compiling one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate and being one of the most effective lawmakers in the GOP.

Russ Feingold, for losing a Wisconsin Senate race that almost every pundit in Washington thought was unloseable at the beginning of 2010.

Mike Castle, for managing to get beaten in the Delaware Republican Senate primary by a fringe political activist who acknowledged having dabbled in witchcraft and campaigned nationally against masturbation.